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Roderick
Human male, born LY 727, in Sorret. Died 792, in Woodstockade. Younger brother of Aurora. Member of the ELC (until 773). Ex-Sorreter and first High Sorcerer (774-792). "The Book of Roderick" is the three hundred forty-ninth book of the O'Gas. Roderick was an adept Sorreter and a vice-bishop of Sorret (which is rare for Sorreters who have not attained the level of master-adept). In 752, after several years of working in secrecy, he succeeded in creating The Land's second fully intentigent race, elves. There were fifty of them in the first generation, and he raised them in secrecy in South Sorret Forest. In 773, at the age of 21, the elves, led by Eller, asked Roderick if they might be introduced to human society, and he agreed. He presented them to the Council of Magicks, led by his close friend Cazzul, who was Grand Sorreter and the village's bishop. To Roderick's surprise, Cazzul was furious that he had kept this secret all these years, and called the creation of the elves blasphemy against God. Bishop Cazzul asked Arch-bishop Prax to take action against Roderick, but Prax left the matter up to Cazzul. The Grand Sorreter convinced the Council to banish Roderick and the elves from Sorret, and strongly suggested that their lives would be made difficult if they settled in any other village. So, Roderick and the elves traveled to Shipsister, and from there sailed westward, searching for some unexplored territory in which to make their home. They soon found the Isle of Freedom, and founded the village of Woodstockade there. The elves decided to abandon the term "sorretry" for magic, instead using the Earth term "sorcery." They also altered the hierarchy of sorcerers from that of Sorreters. Instead of a Grand Sorreter, they would have a High Sorcerer; Roderick assumed this position in 774, after the village had been completed. Under the High Sorcerer would be a Second Sorcerer; Caina assumed this position until Roderick's death in 792, at which point she became the elves' second High Sorcerer, and Eller, who was the Elf Chief, became the second Second Sorcerer. (He assumed the position of High Sorcerer upon Caina's death in 824, and held the position until his own death in 832. Second Sorcerer under Eller was Salucin, who became High Sorcerer in 832.) The rank of Second Sorcerer was equivalent to that of any of the master-adepts on Sorret's Council of Magicks, though there was just one in Woodstockade rather than the several in Sorret. Blow the rank of Second Sorcerer, all elven magic-users were simply called "sorcerers," which might include skill levels which would be equivalent to both adept and master-adept Sorreters. Sorcerers among the original fifty elves, aside from those already mentioned, included Beryllia, Casey, Francisco, Isis, Lyta, Taryn, and Turlough. They, along with Caina, Eller, and Salucin, had all been apprentices under Roderick when they were growing up in the forest outside Sorret, even though technically he had not been a master-adept, and as such would not have been allowed apprentices by the Council. Roderick and the elven sorcerers all continued their studies after moving to Woodstockade, and grew in knowledge such that surely they all eventually deserved master-adept status. And of course, they all eventually took on apprentices among succeeding generations of elves. Roderick's book of the O'Gas was not published until 904, over a century after his death. It included passages he had written both before and after his banishment, but was not submitted for inclusion until a delegation of elven spirit-talkers (including Joan Des'Salucin) attended the 904 Pilgrimage to Monab. The most famous passage within the Book of Roderick includes the fact that, according to God, no sentient race that had not existed at the time of The Fall would be subject to its Punishment. See also *List of High Sorcerers Category:People